The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Runs at 60fps on PS4 & PS Vita

July 29, 2014 Written by Jason Dunning

Set for release soon on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita is The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and over on the game’s website, Tyrone Rodriguez of Nicalis, who is helping Edmund McMillen develop and publish the game, gave out some new details on the title.

For both the PS4 and PS Vita versions, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will run at 60fps (the original flash version was 30fps), with native resolution at 480×272. Rodriguez explained why there’s such an odd resolution:

Aside from being the most versatile resolution across PC and most consoles with semi-16:9 screen, this resolution is a good fit for pixel art AND lets us we get everything we need on-screen in Rebirth.

The differences between the PS Vita and PS4 versions will be generally visual/superficial. The PS Vita DOES NOT have the CPU/GPU of the PS4 and that means not all the crazy special effects and shaders will be in the PS Vita version. Visually, there’s A LOT going on with Rebirth and on Vita we’ve prioritized the game feeling good and being fun. Anyone who’s played the flash version of Isaac can tell you trying to play at 10fps is anything but fun. That doesn’t mean the Vita version won’t look awesome, it just means that if you want all the visual effects, you’ll be play on PS4 or PC. If you want to play anywhere, you’ll be playing on Vita.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth also includes analog/digital control support and fully configurable control mapping (example: “on Vita, if you know you only play with analog movement and firing, then you can move all the vital inputs to the face buttons and not have to mess around with the shoulder buttons”), which you can see below:

PlayStation 4

By default, you’ll move and shoot using both digital and analog controls. That way you can play with analog movement and analog firing, analog movement and digital firing or any combination. The pill, item and bomb are all, by default, set to the shoulder buttons.

PlayStation Vita

The PlayStation Vita is “missing” two additional buttons, but we’ve found a decent work around. The general configuration will be similar to PS4 in that, by default, both digital and analog input work for movement and firing. The shoulder buttons are used for Pill and Bomb and the Select button is used for Item.

Changing map size is handled with the front touch screen. We’ve put a border around the touch screen so that you don’t activate the larger map by accident. There is no use for the rear touch because it’s not precise.

Rodriguez then touched upon seeds, revealing that there are over 4 billion combinations that determine every floor layout, room, enemy and item in the run. “And what this means is that if you’re playing and find a really fun or challenging run, you can find out the seed, write it down and replay it later or send it to your friends,” he said. “If you and your friend have a different set of items unlocked, you will mostly see the same items in the same places, but any items the seed generates which you haven’t unlocked will be replaced with one you do have. However, you will not be able to unlock anything while you are playing a seeded run, so you can’t cheat to unlock everything easily.”

When The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth gets a release date, we’ll let you know.